(Yes I know most people laid off go on a spending binge as a psychological coping mechanism, but I swear I’m different – I’m finally free of the Eye of Bank Sauron questioning every ‘unusual’ spend of my money that I personally worked for and earned, so yes I let loose a bunch of pent up spending on things I’ve wanted for a while)
As mentioned a few posts ago as priority item number two for my period of unemployment, I’m going to be spending a lot more time with my children this summer than they have ever had before. We have five days in Amsterdam and another five days in London together coming up. For the nine weeks of summer remaining, when the weather is good I expect to be taking them on day trips somewhere in Ireland (which is after all a tourism superpower), or somewhere local. We fortunately live in the middle of some of the best hiking country in the world, but most of it hasn’t been doable due to short legs not being able to hike far. I believe I have solved that problem and several other problems simultaneously by purchasing a cargo e-bike which can carry two children with me!
Choosing a bicycle
Henry happened to take Clara’s bike for a spin a few weeks ago, from which it became obvious to all that Clara’s bike is the right size for him and therefore Clara now needs a new bike. It’s kinda painful to admit that Clara’s new bike is probably Megan’s adult bike. My how she has grown!
Which means Megan now needs a new bike, and luckily four years have elapsed since we last bought a bike under the Irish government’s Cycle to Work scheme which at current rates allows an employer to purchase a bike for its employees up to a limit of €1,250 for a push bike, €1,500 for an electric bike, and €3,000 for a cargo bike. The employer may purchase this bike up to those limits not as a benefit in kind and without inducing tax of any kind, and therefore it comes out of pre-tax money which is 38.5% of post-tax money i.e. that €3,000 bike is equal to €1,155 in post-tax money. It is therefore one of the most efficient things a micro business in Ireland can spend money upon.
I’ll set aside how immoral taxation at a 61.5% rate is by definition to focus on ‘what can you get today for under the Irish government limits?’. Four years ago a Trek FX3 Equipped was bought, and four years before that a Trek FX2 was bought under that scheme. Both are fine bikes, and we learned that having the manufacturer equip the bike with luggage racks and stands etc was a far superior bike than aftermarket equipment and the Irish Revenue scheme doesn’t care what is bundled with the bike so long as it’s under the price limit and any additionally purchased items not in the bike order are on Revenue’s approved list of permitted additional purchases for bikes under the scheme. We could go for another Trek FX3 grade of bike and stay under the limit. Or we might try something else.
Choosing an electric bicycle
I decided to take a punt on something else: a cargo e-bike, which might complement our existing bikes none of which are going anywhere (and why buy a duplicate of what you already have?). Unfortunately cargo e-bikes which are anyway reasonably specced are far beyond €3,000 in the current Celtic Tiger frothiness. So I was constrained to direct to consumer Chinese vendors the biggest of which in Europe are ADO, Engwe and Fiido.
There are at least a dozen such direct to consumer Chinese vendors operating in Europe. And many more again under the likes of Halfords ‘own label’ marks etc. Personally speaking, I’d tend towards the Western marks (even though they’re made in China) as the quality tends to be a touch above. However, in battery and electric motors, the Chinese undoubtedly lead the world. Those BYD batteries I bought for the future house are second none in my opinion – world leading. The inverter is not quite as good as European inverters, but given it’s half the price and it’s definitely at least 80% as good, I’m sold. I suspect the same applies to e-bikes even if it does not to push bikes. Yes the non-EV bits will be inferior, but if half the price and if the EV bits are superior, that works for me.
ADO and Engwe appear to be strongest on folding e-bikes – most Deliveroo riders choose an Engwe, a few choose an ADO, and I would assume they would not if they weren’t good value for money. ADO’s bikes cost a bit more than either Engwe or Fiido, but they’re a bit better made, and usually a bit lighter through better design rather than simply throwing more metal at solving problems. In particular ADO appears to make more use of extruded aluminium, whereas the others weld their aluminium. Extruded aluminium doesn’t suffer from weak points at the welds, so you can make the frame lighter and thinner without risking fracture. Engwe and ADO can use mid mounted instead of rear mounted motors. Engwe tends to be the first to market with new technology or refinements. Fiido and then ADO tend to follow after.
All these general statements apply to the general bike offerings, and not necessary to cargo bikes, which are ones designed to carry luggage. Of the cargo e-bikes that ADO, Engwe and Fiido offer – and do bear in mind the current models have been on the market about eighteen months in total after their vendors entered the direct to European consumer business no more than five years ago – ADO’s cargo e-bike clearly was not competitive in terms of price to spec, and the rebadged own brand labels suffered from a lack of online reviews as to their quality. This left the Engwe LE20 cargo e-bike for €1,599 inc VAT delivered and the Fiido T2 Longtail (2025 edition) cargo e-bike for €1,499 inc VAT delivered. Both suffer from extensive ‘aggressive brand management’ typical of Chinese direct to European consumer businesses whereby paid shills and trolls are employed to ‘manage’ the brand identity in a way offputting to most Europeans because it is rather too forced down the throat. To be honest, they’d do better in Europe by letting the product speak for itself, and not trying so hard with the public image which makes it look like they’re trying to hide something. Still, excessive execution on the brand management side can mask actual value – nobody today would say that BYD cars aren’t competitive with any other, and that’s partially because BYD learned to be less publicly insecure about how good their stuff really is.
Having decided that a direct to consumer cargo e-bike was definitely the proposed buy, I read everything I could online about the Fiido T2 Longtail and the Engwe LE20. Most Youtube reviews on these were fairly obviously incentivised, and most Reddit and other social media and forum posts were also questionable. It really didn’t help that conventional bicycle comparison reviews refused to include cargo e-bikes from these direct to consumer vendors, so you’d have this comparison review of twelve cargo e-bikes from all the major Western brands and not a single Chinese brand in there. Luckily, with enough foot leather expended, you can eventually find individual comments and mini-reviews by people who are cycling the major Western brands AND a Engwe and/or Fiido. If after researching their account I felt they were an actual genuine true person not being paid to write what they were writing, their opinion was ranked very highly relative to others.
I mention all this to explain what comes next, and before that I ought to list specifications:
| Bike | Price | Battery | Weight | Claimed torque | Brakes | Tyres | Gears | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engwe LE20 (2025 edition) | €1,349 after discounts | 922 Wh | 36.8 kg | 100 Nm mid drive | 180 mm hydraulic | 20 inch by 3 inch | 7 speed Shimano Tourney | has turn signals |
| Fiido T2 Longtail (2025 edition) | €1,384 after discounts | 998 Wh | 39.5 kg | 55 Nm rear drive | 230 mm hydraulic | 20 inch by 4 inch | 7 speed Shimano Tourney | can be unlocked from EU regulations |
(the discounts from the list prices above can be had by collecting youtube review referral discounts, which obviously proves that the review is incentivised. Still, it can save you a few hundred euro)
I’ve emboldened the outstanding feature of each bike, and underlined the weakest. To be clear, both of these 2025 models have torque sensor pedals not the cadence sensor pedals typical of 2024 and earlier models in this price range. Both are EU regulations compliant in having a motor constrained to 250 watts and a maximum speed of 25 kph, which their 2024 models were not (and indeed which famously resulted in some Engwe bikes in the UK being very publicly destroyed by the government). Both have Shimano front suspension forks to soak up the crappy roads typical in Ireland and the UK.
And, despite being more expensive, heavier and having an apparently lower spec, I plumped for the Fiido. Here it is after completing assembly, and then with Julia on the back sitting in the ‘child cage’ optional accessory which also doubles as a goods carrying basket if you fit the bag fabric:
So why did I choose the Fiido T2 Longtail instead of the Engwe LE20?
To be clear, either is a great cargo e-bike in the sub €1,500 price range (and also to be clear, neither is as good as a €3,000 or especially a €4,000 cargo bike). But from very extensive cataloging of what I reckoned were likely trustworthy user feedback and reviews, the Fiido beat out the Engwe despite the clearly worse specifications.
I should caveat that claim by the reviews last year were tainted somewhat by the Engwe being then a few hundred euro more expensive, which is no longer the case now it’s cheaper. Everybody agrees the mid vs rear drive is superior, especially as the Engwe has an especially torquey motor and gears can be applied to turn that motor into any ratio of drive you want which means far less slowdowns on steep hills. The Engwe is lighter, the Engwe has turn signals which reviews of the Fiido T2 often mention is lacking. One probably ought to have chosen the Engwe given the higher spec and lower price.
However I decided to follow the evidence first: put bluntly, there were more positive reviews that I trust of the Fiido than the Engwe. Many mentioned that the Engwe’s seat was especially awful, whereas the Fiido’s seat was just bad. I became convinced after my research that if you’re going to go fat tyre, then go fat tyre all in and therefore the four inch fat tyres beat the three inch fat tyres. And, finally, the braking: everybody, absolutely everybody, agrees that the braking on the Fiido is by far and away amongst the best braking on a bike anywhere. The brakes are branded models, and they normally fit that brand and model on motorcycles. And yes you can absolutely tell that – I went from 50 kph to full stop while going down a hill in under three metres. The Fiido has phenomenal braking power between its brakes and its motorcycle style fat tyres which grip the road far better than thinner tyres. Better than my Trek bikes, which weigh maybe 18 kg versus the ~40 kg of the Fiido. The Fiido I am quite sure would stop the quickest from speed of all my bikes. And that, when I expect to have two of my children on the back of this bike, really does matter to me.
Yes I know most bicycle enthusiasts hate the fat tyres common on Chinese branded bikes. They add weight and road noise, reduce manoeuvrability and rate of turning at speed, and have more rolling resistance which means they’re harder to pedal and reduce battery range. For some reason – I assume market demand – Chinese branded bikes fit bigger batteries and more powerful motors i.e. adding even more weight whilst still keeping the fat tyres. Me personally – I’ve ridden motorcycles and mopeds before, so I’m more used to fat tyres. I know they’re better on loose stone, and far better on sand than bicycle tyres. As mentioned last paragraph, all that extra grip makes for superb braking but it also means you don’t feel unsafe at 50-60 kph like I do on my Trek bikes. I think fat tyres are just a different cycle experience, they have their pros as well as their cons. Their biggest con in my book is the harder pedalling, but for an e-bike it’s rare you actually have to push the pedals by much. Similarly, the added weight matters much less when it’s the motor pushing the bike around rather than me.
The other cause of my choosing the Fiido is that you can still disable the EU imposed power restrictions via an engineering debug menu, whereas Engwe due to the very public crushing of their bicycles on social media has completely removed that option. I’ll be very blunt here: I can personally testify that the Fiido with EU constraints removed is a very different bike to EU constraints imposed which is the default. The unshackled bike is a monster, oodles of torque and power. Is there a 15% gradient hill ahead? I’ll power up that at 20 kph with an extra child onboard. I’m currently personally a little heavy at 84 kg, so on the flat alone unshackled bike reaches about 40 - 42 kph. But even unshackled it remains shackled to a max power assist below 50 kph which is a shame because it’s never uncomfortable nor is there ever feelings of unsafety at 60 kph which I can reach going down a steep hill. I wish they’d allow unshackled power assist to 60 kph … but okay, this is a sub €1,500 e-bike, and we’re already into illegalness in the EU if you go faster than 25 kph on a public road.
Having compared EU legal vs what the bike can actually do … the EU regulations are plain dumb and stupid. If I have a licence to drive a car and I have driven the past decade without even a parking ticket never mind a speeding ticket, why should my bike which is perfectly safe at 50 kph be artificially limited to 25 kph? Why can I drive a car at 50 kph but not a bike – which is far less lethal – also at 50 kph?
There is an argument that cars shouldn’t be allowed to drive at 50 kph in urban areas either, and should be constrained to 30 kph. If drones can be constrained based on location, and so can cars, why can’t e-bikes? The app on your phone knows your location and speed limits. It could impose geolocated 30 kph or 50 kph limits same as for cars for people with valid driving licences. Then, if you’re out on rural roads, you can open it up.
I think the EU could do far better here. Absolutely insist on bikes having better braking power than cars as a start. For those who validate their driving licence with the app, I’d raise the maximum speed to 30 kph as 25 kph is just a touch too slow, and I’d make those speed restrictions geolocated same as for drones and cars.
I expect nobody able to do something about it will be reading this so it won’t matter. But it just seems a missed opportunity to me. With the range and carrying capacity a cargo e-bike has, it’s a viable alternative to a car for short runs like to a shop. We should be encouraging that, not discouraging it.
The negatives of the Fiido T2 (2025) longtail e-bike
I feel that I haven’t been fair. I’ve been all positives and I haven’t mentioned any negatives about my choice of the Fiido bike, and it wouldn’t be fair if I did not. I should point out beforehand that everything I say here refers to the 2025 edition of this bike. Later editions will probably be better, and the 2024 and earlier editions are definitely worse.
Our Trek bikes have mid-range bike gear, so their gear changing isn’t the worst but isn’t the best either. Similarly for the brakes – our FX2 in particular has the old fashioned rim-based brakes, whereas our FX3 has hydraulic disc brakes. If I am honest, I am unconvinced that the FX3 is worth 2x the cost of the FX2 which was the purchase price difference. Yes the FX3 is better in many areas, but nowhere near 2x better overall. In this, I think push bikes are like whiskey – after a certain point, 2x the cost is at best +20% better. I mention this now, because it will make sense later.
The Fiido definitely has cost reduction elements about it. It is good that they chose anything Shimano at all given how bad some of the bottom range Chinese derailleurs are. But that said the Shimano Tourney … it really is bargain basement compared to the also Shimano derailleurs on the FX2 never mind the fancy Shimano derailleur on the FX3. The chain audibly grinds as it goes, and the gear changes are noticeably less clean than on the Trek bikes. Yes Shimano Tourney gets the job done, but you’d be slightly wincing as it executes. There is too much grinding metal.
I didn’t think much of T2’s front axle – it’ll be fine, but the engineering isn’t what you’d get on our Treks. The chain, gears and bearings on the Fiido noticeably grind when they turn in a way like on a very cheap bike, and not the fluid and relative silence you get on our Trek bikes. There is a very obvious difference in quality there. I would infer that the wear and tear will be higher on the Fiido, though they do supply replacement parts on their website at acceptable prices. My point is you might get ten years from a chain on a Trek bike at the rate we cycle, and I doubt you’d get five years on a chain from a Fiido T2 bike given the audible wear being put on it. All that said, right now from Fiido’s website a replacement chain costs €24 for the T2. Assuming Fiido remain in business and selling that chain, that seems acceptable considering an OEM Shimano chain for the Trek bikes currently costs €36 and the T2’s chain is 50% longer.
The Fiido’s four inch wide tyres soak up a fair amount of road micro-shittiness which is very pleasing compared to the thin road tyres of the Trek bikes which by definition shakes your bones to their very core every single cycle especially at speed. But the tread on the tyre is noticeably thin which means the tyres will need replacing sooner. I feel this is avoidable for very little extra cost. There is also noticeably more road noise from these fat tyres, and between the drone of the electric motor and these tyres it’s a much noisier experience cycling than with the Trek bikes. In the cities this won’t matter, but out in the countryside with zero noise other than nature … well, the extra noise is unfortunate.
Cheap bikes tend to weigh more – my daughter’s smaller bike is noticeably heavier than our Trek bikes due to steel vs aluminium frames. The Fiido has an aluminium frame, but it has a whole ton load of frame like the old British made Raleigh bikes used to. On the one hand, you will never, ever, break those frames no matter what you do which was the case for those British made Raleigh bikes and I’m fairly sure is the case for the Fiido T2 Longtail frame. On the other hand, you’re lugging around many unnecessary kilograms of weight. The electric motor mitigates this somewhat, but consider the same motor on a 15 kg frame – assuming a 80 kg rider, it would be ~20% faster and more responsive. I can see where Fiido are coming from – a few years ago they had bike frames cracking for which they had to do a recall, which undoubtedly led them to be extra conservative about frames. Similarly, Engwe had all those bikes crushed for not being EU regs compliant, so they’ve gone overboard on being EU regs compliant to their overall detriment.
Finally, it’s a small thing but the torque sensor on the 2025 Fiido T2 longtail which is apparently made by ‘Mivice’ isn’t great in my opinion. To be extremely clear, I would choose this torque sensor any day and at any time over the cadence sensors in the bike models preceding. But there is no avoiding that this particular torque sensor ‘Mivice S200’ is not a great example thereof. Its torque detection range appears to have at most five levels over a narrow range. As a result, when at the threshold, the bike unhelpfully oscillates between power levels in a rough sort of way as you pedal. It generates a rough graduation of power delivery e.g. if you are cycling behind traffic held up by a tractor, you need to have a speed matching the traffic. But the Mivice S200 will choose from your pedalling a speed which oscillates between too slow and too fast for the traffic. This causes a fast-slow oscillation, so your bike rides ‘jumpy’. I mean, it works right, you don’t run into the car in front and you don’t hold up the car behind. But it is hardly smooth.
The same lack of graduated range problem also affects the throttle which has a distinctly non linear application of power to how much you push it down. This also causes jumpiness, because the bike lurches forward causing your finger to retract cutting the power, so now you fall forwards again and the power comes back full on.
We all love how torquey this bike is, but sometimes you just want smoothness instead. Engwe have solved this in their 2025 range using a ‘boost button’ such that the default is a smoothed, averaged torque which takes a while to adjust to pedal pressure. If you want it to respond immediately to pedal torque, you hold down that boost button to turn off the low pass filter the bike is running on the torque sensor. This is one way of solving the problem, however I have to think that this is 100% software stuff, it’s possible that Fiido could fix this ride oscillation problem in a future firmware update, and I do hope that they do so.
I should stress that these negatives are all small niggles. There is absolutely nothing showstopper in here. To be honest, the bike is great, it is comfortable to ride, after 125 km on the clock the battery seems to last plenty of distance, and it has plenty of power and torque. Yes it could be better, but like with my solar inverter, it’s less than half the price of Western marks and not far from as good. Western marks are maybe 20% better at double the cost. This is a very good bike for the money.
Where e-bikes will probably go next
Considering that four years from now I may be able to buy another bike under the Irish Cycle to Work scheme, it is worth reflecting on where e-bikes might be four years from now.
The most likely thing will be improvements to that torque sensor – within four years, I’d expect an unobtrusive match of pedalling to velocity without any roughness oscillating between power levels. This seems extremely doable within four years, especially as torque sensors only entered this price range in 2025. I think future budget torque sensors will be more graduated over a longer range, and thus more fluid and less jumpy. I think firmwares will be better by then at figuring out what you’re doing and the most pleasing response. Or, boost buttons could become standard.
The next most likely thing will be battery capacity. Right now for ~€1,400 inc VAT I can get one kilowatt hour of battery capacity. I would be surprised if in four years from now you can’t get two kilowatt hours for the same money given how battery capacity per euro has been trending.
The third most likely thing will be reduction in weight for the same money. That is something Western manufacturers have tended to focus upon once they maximise every other cost-benefit adjusted feature from their perspective. I would be surprised if Chinese manufacturers don’t follow the same path, and it does have advantages in terms of handling and efficiency.
The fourth thing is suspension for the rear as well as the front. As much as those low pressure fat tyres soak up the micro-shittiness of the roads, they can’t do much for the potholes and the sometimes very rough road surface. Then the front suspension works overtime, and the whole bike still shakes which is neither good for it nor is particularly comfortable for me. If the rear wheel had similar suspension to the front, that would be great.
Engwe’s late 2025 new models I see all their heavy bike models will now come with dual suspension. That should improve the ride on Irish roads quite considerably. If Engwe are shipping dual suspension this year, Fiido surely will next year to keep up.
Shock absorbers are heavy, and any bike with them will always be heavy. Fitting to both wheels you’ll never see the weight below 30 kg without using exotic materials. A 40 kg bike isn’t going to be much heavier with suspension added to the back, and given the improvement to the rider I’d welcome Fiido catching up to Engwe on that.
How the Fiido T2 longtail rides
I’ve only done around 125 km at the time of writing on this bike, so I can say nothing about longevity nor reliability other than nothing has broken yet over some very rough road at speed with a heavy bike.
Here are two routes from my usual cycling route roster with the push bike. The first is that you cycle out to one end of Analeentha greenway, do the 5 km of the greenway which is off road, then cycle back. The second is that you cycle pretty much entirely up hill to behind the nearby quarry, where you get some excellent views, and then it’s downhill from there.
I’ve ordered these as 1A, 1B and 2A, 2B where A is on my Trek FX3 push bike, and B is on the Fiido:
For the first route, on the push bike it took me 1 hr 43 min though in years past before I got fat I could do it in 1 hr 27 min if I remember rightly. On the e-bike, it is a mere 48 minutes. As the average velocity shows, I did a touch above 25 kph average which would appear to be illegal – but in fact that’s because I absolutely hammered the greenway which is off road and downhill. You might notice my peak heart rate for the Fiido ride is very considerably higher than for the push bike ride – that was adrenalin. That greenway is covered in loose stone, it currently has lots of foliage blocking your view around corners, and there was quite a lot of ‘oh shit brake’ followed by ‘max throttle’. This does get the blood pumping!
(I felt bad to do the Analeentha greenway so quickly. It is very pretty. On the push bike, I normally just leave it roll slowly downhill under gravity and I look at the wonderful sights along the way)
For the second route, on the push bike it took me 1 hr 15 min and on the e-bike 34 minutes. Average speed again looks a touch over 25 kph despite me being always on public roads – this is because the bike powers up the hills at 25 kph, the legal limit, and goes rather faster than that downhill under gravity.
I reckon I did about 38 km on these two trips since I charged the battery, so I put it back on the charger and according to the watt meter, it consumed 578 Wh at the socket to bring the battery to full. Assuming ~15% of that was wasted to heat, the battery might have been about half full, despite that the bike showed two out of five bars of charge (40%). I read online that the bike does have a limp home mode and it reserves the last 20% percent of battery capacity for limp home, but I don’t know if that is included in the meter shown. If the meter does represent the whole capacity of the battery, I reckon it uses about 13.2 watt hours per km. Interestingly, the very best EVs in real world testing (not what their manufacturer claims) currently use almost exactly ten times that at 140 Wh/km, and the best of affordable EVs are currently above 150 Wh/km. E-bikes are a far more efficient electric transport.
Having done those two small tests, I then went for the gold standard test:
- Cycle from Dromahane to Bweeng.
- Go up Bweenduff mountain, emerging in Lahern Cross.
- Cycle from Lahern Cross to the base of Mount Hilary.
- Go up Mount Hilary, emerging near Banteer.
- Reach the site in Banteer, take a short break, then cycle from Banteer back to Dromahane via the quickest way possible.
If nothing goes wrong, that is a round trip of 50 km, which leaves a little safety margin.
Well, I can tell you things did go wrong. Here is the route I actually did which I had to reconstruct because the GPS route capture didn’t work due to me fat fingering the recorder:
Due to me getting lost on Bweengduff and accidentally heading south, the bike thinks I rode 48 km to reach the site (it slightly undercounts according to the GPS recorder, but isn’t far off). I didn’t fat finger the recorder for the trip home, and that was 19 km making a total of 67 km, with one mountain ascent rather than two. The watt meter says the charger consumed 894 Wh to restore the battery to full, so maybe 775 Wh was consumed by that trip which is 11.6 Wh per km. Given the single > 300 metre ascent, I think that’s pretty good going – though during the ascent, the motor overheating warning appeared and it reduced torque considerably, though not enough to stop the bike.
The bike drops quickly from five bars of charge to four, and takes longer to drop to three, then two. I reached one bar about half way through the cycle back home. If 775 Wh was all that was actually consumed, the battery still had more than 20% in the tank and hence I never saw limp home mode, which would match it happily powering me up the steep hill just before home without complaint. Fiido claim that the bike does under 10 Wh/km on mostly flat if it’s 27 C, and given the 15 C temperature and the > 300 metre ascent, that range claim actually seems plausible.
The gold standard test had me going both up and down steep gravel tracks. I didn’t disable the EU speed restrictions at any point during this test to preserve battery longevity, however I certainly got up to 60 kph going down hill on gravel just from gravity alone.
Yes I did just say I did 60 kph on gravel. That would be nearly guaranteed death on the Trek bikes. On those fat tyres, it was surprisingly safe feeling, even going around corners and braking. When I braked at the end when it reached a main road, the bike stopped in plenty of time despite the speed and the gravel flying everywhere.
The Fiido T2 isn’t supposed to be used as a gravel bike. But it’s a damn fine gravel bike. I had a lot of fun on it on Bweengduff, and I would be surprised if I don’t take that bike up a gravel pathed mountain again soon before the kids exit school.
What’s next?
As my company may not earn money again for a while, we ought to exercise in full our options for utilising the Cycle to Work scheme by Megan also getting an e-bike. She wants a folding one she can easily get up the stairs at her work, so it probably ought to be not too heavy. Here are the current mid 2025 options for direct to consumer Chinese folding e-bikes, with bold for the best feature and underline for the weakest feature:
| Bike | Price | Battery | Weight | Claimed torque | Suspension | Tyres | Gears | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADO Air 20 Pro | €1,499 after discounts | 346 Wh | 18 kg | 40 Nm rear two gear drive | Front wheels only | 20 inch by 2 inch | None | appears to surcharge delivery to Ireland and not anywhere else in Europe, including Britain |
| Engwe L20 3.0 (2025 edition) | €1468 | 346 Wh | 33 kg | 75 Nm rear drive | Both front and rear | 20 inch by 3 inch | 7 speed Shimano Tourney | |
| Engwe P20 (2025 edition) | €999 | 346 Wh | 18.5 kg (excludes rear rack) | 42 Nm rear drive | None | 20 inch by 2 inch | None | |
| Fiido D11 (2025 edition) | €1,098 | 418 Wh | 22 kg | 40 Nm rear drive | None | 20 inch by 2 inch | 7 speed Shimano Tourney | launches in July. Are the mudguards bundled? |
| Fiido X (2025 edition) | €1,398 after discounts | 418 Wh | 22 kg | 40 Nm rear drive | None | 20 inch by 2 inch | 7 speed Shimano Tourney | has annoying battery lock; rear rack obscures rear light; front light doesn't point with the steering; locking mechanism isn't as good at the D11's; D11 is a good bit cheaper for otherwise identical spec |
Apart from the Engwe L20, these are all 36v systems rather than the 48v system in my cargo bike, so you get a good bit less torque. Apart from the weight, that Engwe L20 3.0 looks amazing – had I not specifically needed a cargo bike to fit two children I’d have gone for that, albeit I would miss the inability to remove the EU power restrictions. I wouldn’t want to lift 33 kg up any stairs though, but for getting it into the boot of a car it would be acceptable and I suspect they’ll sell loads of those for that price and featureset. I mean, if it can fit into the boot of a car, even at that weight you could totally take it for off road riding up and down mountains etc.
If one does want to lift it up the stairs, it looks like the ADO is the first pick and probably the Fiido D11 is the second pick. The ADO’s two gear motor, carbon belt drive and front suspension within an 18 kg package is impressive, even though the battery is a touch on the low side (but plenty for Megan’s commute). I’ve sent an enquiry to see what can be done about that Irish delivery surcharge.
I hope you enjoyed this unexpectedly long post about purchasing an e-bike. I fully expect to use both my push bike and e-bike going forth. They’re actually orthogonal use cases, despite the apparent similarities. After that 67 km trip I was quite, quite sore and it felt like I’d done a similar time, if not distance, on the push bike. So even with the motor assist, they are a fair workout. I’ll be making use of that this summer if the weather permits me.
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